Visible-light-responsive photocatalyst based on ZnO/CdS nanocomposite for photodegradation of reactive red azo dye and ofloxacin antibiotic

By Teeradech Senasu, Tammanoon Chankhanittha, K. Hemavibool, S. Nanan. Materials Science in Semiconductor Processing, 2020

150 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Abstract Fabrication of ZnO/CdS nanocomposite with addition of sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS) has been demonstrated. The ZnO photocatalyst was synthesized first by precipitation route and then the CdS photocatalyst was decorated on the surface of the ZnO via a hydrothermal technique. The PL intensity of the ZnO/CdS nanocomposite was lower than that obtained from ZnO. This indicates lower electron-hole recombination rate implying the improvement of photoactivity. The composite showed efficiency of 80% and 73% toward photodegradation of reactive red 141 (RR141) azo dye and ofloxacin (OFL) antibiotic, respectively. This is attributed to its high specific surface area together with suppression of charge carrier recombination. The efficiency of OFL degradation also reached 90% under solar light. The structural stability of the photocatalyst after three runs has been confirmed. The photogenerated hole played a crucial role in photodegradation of OFL antibiotic. The prepared ZnO/CdS photocatalyst shows a promising potential for environmental protection.

Subfields: Materials Chemistry, Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/a7b19c3e8fa5e78ecd8805dba5866fa49a8986f5